Sue Yanagisawa
All evidence has now been heard on pollution charges laid two years ago against Hay Bay Genetics Inc., a large hog operation near Adolphustown in Greater Napanee.
All that remains is a judgment, but that's many months away.
The case which was tried in Napanee over the past four months is scheduled to return to a Kingston court on May 28 to set a deadline for the lawyers to submit written legal arguments to Justice of the Peace L.A. Watson.
Federal Crown prosecutor David Crowe said he and defence lawyer Gabrielle Kramer will make oral submissions on a subsequent, yet to be decided date.
Hay Bay Genetics Inc., a family-owned farming company, with president Ron Davis and manager Mark Davis are facing 11 charges under the federal Fisheries Act.
There are 10 counts of polluting waters frequented by fish and one charge of failing to comply with an order to rectify that situation in the period between August and December 1998.
The suspected source of the contamination is leaking manure from the broken seal of a four-year-old underground septic tank that has since been fixed.
Since the charges were laid, however, the farm has come under scrutiny from Prince Edward County property owners and the Sierra Club of Canada.
Environment Canada charged the company and its principals on the basis that stormwater samples collected from the property between July and December 1998 killed rainbow trout fry in the laboratory.
During the trial, both the sampling methods used by Environment Canada's investigators and their laboratory results were challenged by Kramer.
She called Philippe Riebel, an environmental toxicologist and Gordon Craig, an aquatic toxicologist, as expert witnesses to question the validity of Environment Canada's findings.
Crowe had hoped to call two senior government scientists to rebut the challenge, but after reviewing the relevant case law, the justice of the peace refused the application.
Watson said: "The underlying principal in law, as I understand it, is that the Crown not be allowed to split its case."
Kramer expressed that view earlier, describing Crowe's request to reopen his case as an ambush on the defence.
Kramer said Crowe knew she was going to challenge Environment Canada's findings. She told Watson that Crowe should have called expert witnesses before the defence did.